Colum McGuire, vice president of welfare at the NUS says: "Universities should urgently be looking at properly planning accommodation supply and capping rent increases to ensure students are not priced out of living in halls."

University strike

Photograph: Occupy Sussex

Lecturers at universities across the UK go on strike today over pay. Unions UCU, Unison, and Unite say they will bring universities to a "standstill" over a below inflation pay rise.

Classes at Liverpool John Moores University and Liverpool Hope University have been cancelled because of the strike.

Many students are in support, with student protesters at Sussex University occupying a lecture theatre overnight in protest.

Occupy Susex say in a statement: "We are occupying in support of the strike, reaffirming our opposition to government-led austerity which is crippling higher education to the detriment of staff and students alike.

"Considering senior management at Sussex is complicit in the lowering of wages, we have decided to occupy. Considering that lecturers and tutors are on strike tomorrow and learning has thus been disrupted already, we have decided to occupy.

"Considering that the most significant form of collective action students can do is occupy, we decided to occupy."

Remembrance spat

Photograph: Alamy

Labour MP Stella Creasy says she's "ashamed" of the University of London Union (ULU) decision to boycott Remembrance day services.

Elected representatives of ULU are allowed to attend in a personal capacity, but cannot speak for other students, or for the union.

Michael Chessum, president of ULU, says: "Personally, I will commemorate the dead killed in war by fighting for peace, and challenging the policies of governments."

Creasy says on Twitter: "As a former student [of LSE], the decision by ULU to ban officers from participating in Remembrance Sunday makes me ashamed.

"Remembrance Sunday isn't about the reasons to go to war, but honouring those who serve their country."

Chessum replies: "War is largely a bitter, unjust experience imposed on ordinary people, often by the same politicians who stand and salute them."

Do you have an Oxbridge name?

Photograph: Dan Kitwood

Students with surnames traditionally associated with wealth, such as Darcy, Mandeville, Percy and Montgomery, have dominated Oxbridge for the past 800 years, according to research conducted by the London School of Economics.

Researchers, Dr Neil Cummins and Professor Gregory Clark, worry about what this says about social mobility. Cummins says: "Surnames such as Baskerville, Darcy, Mandeville and Montgomery are still over-represented at Oxbridge, and also among elite occupations such as medicine, law and politics.

"Between 1800 and 2011 there have been substantial institutional changes in England, but no gain in rates of social mobility for society as a whole."

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• This blog was amended on 04.11.13 to remove an inaccurate reference to Lincoln University.